Squarespace vs Zenfolio 2024 – Which is Better?

Are you a professional photographer looking for the best platform to host your portfolio and/or online store? By their very nature, photography websites are media-heavy.

Therefore, not just any platform will do. Rather, it must be one that can accommodate the unique needs of the industry. There is no scarcity of platforms that claim to be the best for the job. Two that you are bound to run into are Squarespace and Zenfolio.

This review takes a look at the two, their target audience, most significant features, pricing and other information that would be vital to know before determining which is the most suitable one for you.

Squarespace vs Zenfolio: Overview

Squarespace

Squarespace is a multipurpose platform that provides diverse organizations and individuals the building blocks they require to create world ready websites, portfolios and ecommerce stores.

As a service that caters to a broad range of product and business types, Squarespace has an extensive array of features including analytics and marketing tools.

It works for individuals and organizations trading in physical products, digital products and subscription services. Established in 2003, the company has more than four million subscribers.

Zenfolio

It’s all in the name. Zenfolio is focused on providing a platform that helps videographers and photographers build portfolio websites, shareable client galleries and ecommerce stores.

Founded in 2004, it has grown into a community of over half a million photographers. Zenfolio aims to take care of the technological complexity that powers a photographer’s online presence thereby allowing them to focus on their core expertise.

Features

Squarespace

• Broad range of customizable templates.
• Organize items by categories and subcategories.
• Add a portfolio section or page to a Squarespace template or choose from the most popular portfolio website templates.
• Allow clients to schedule appointments online.
• Dozens of ecommerce integrations such as PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Xero, Printful, Stripe and Afterpay. Multiple extensions including Quickbooks by OneSaaS.
• Make it easier for clients to get in touch by providing a contact form or an email address.
• Accept payments by Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay and Afterpay.
• Automatically set prices as either tax exclusive or tax inclusive. Calculate taxes and streamline tax filing and reporting.
• Built in search engine optimization (SEO) tools that help tweak product descriptions, titles and other website elements for better search visibility.
• Built in email marketing campaigns.
• Built in social media tools connecting the site to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, X, and Medium. Display social media feeds on the website and push site content to social media. Embed video and audio from YouTube, Spotify, Vimeo and SoundCloud.

Zenfolio

• Free photography website templates
• Numerous ways to customize the website including adding logo, changing layout, choosing fonts and colors.
• On photo and video upload, it automatically creates folders, galleries and collections.
• Portfolio website animations.
• Import Instagram photos.
• Add watermarks to photos and videos.
• Password-protect galleries.
• Track visitor and client interactions including monitoring comments, shares and favorites.
• Tag photos and videos enabling quick search for grouped media.
• Automatically flag and mark for discarding photos that do not meet certain parameters of quality such as sharpness, facial expression and blinking eyes.
• Facial recognition to identify subjects within a crowd. Search and sort through photos by face.
• Permit digital downloads.
• AI-powered recommendation of the store’s prices based on multiple factors such as the photographer’s geographical location, shoot type and partner lab fees.
• Automated marketing campaign tools, built in SEO and social media integration.
• Online scheduling to take, manage and invoice bookings.
• Mobile-friendly design.
• Human live chat and 24/7 email support. Backed by free webinars, video tutorials and how-to guides.

Pricing

Squarespace and Zenfolio both run on a subscription-based business model. Each offers a 14-day free trial.

Entry-Level Pricing

Squarespace’s lowest priced plan is the Personal plan. It costs $16 per month if paid per annum ($23 if paid monthly). However, this plan is devoid of ecommerce features. For that, you would need to subscribe to a plan that comes with fully integrated ecommerce capabilities.

In that regard, the lowest priced is the Business plan which costs $23 per month for an annual subscription ($33 for a monthly subscription).

Zenfolio’s cheapest subscription is the Portfolio plan which goes for $9 a month if paid annually ($9 if paid per month).

This can serve the purpose for photographers that want to create a website only for hosting and displaying galleries of their work. If the intention is to have a full ecommerce store that facilitates purchase, that would only be possible starting with the PortfolioPlus plan.

PortfolioPlus goes for $11.50 per month if paid annually ($23 if paid monthly).

Money Back Guarantee

Squarespace provides a full refund for any annual subscription that is canceled no more than 14 days after payment. Monthly subscriptions are not eligible for a refund on cancellation.

Zenfolio offers refunds for annual subscriptions canceled within 30 days of signing up or making payment. Monthly subscriptions are not eligible for cancellation refunds.

Accepted Payment Methods

You can pay for your Squarespace subscription using American Express, Diner’s Club, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, Visa in addition to SEPA direct debit. For your store however, accepted means of payment are more diverse if you connect Squarespace Payments, Square, Stripe or PayPal.

That would give your online shop the ability to receive payment from all major credit cards as well as PayPal, Apple Pay, Clearpay and Afterpay.

When paying for your subscription, Zenfolio will accept payment from major credit cards. You can also pay from the funds in your Zenfolio account received from your clients.

If you set up your ecommerce store on Zenfolio and connect it to PayPal and/or Stripe, you can receive client payments from PayPal, major credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Transaction Fees

Squarespace levies a 3% transaction fee when you sign up for the Business plan. There are no transaction fees on higher level plans i.e. Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced.

When selling through Zenfolio, there is a 7% commerce fee on each order.

On both Squarespace and Zenfolio, you have to bear the payment processing fees as well depending on the third-party payment processor you use (usually Stripe and/or PayPal).

Support and Training

Squarespace has a Help Center with a knowledge base that covers the most common topics, questions and definitions that customers would be interested in.

It leverages video guides, webinars and blogs. There’s a service status page that subscribers can use to check if any Squarespace service is down and the percentage uptime over the last 90 days.

Customers have access to email support, a ticketing system as well as live chat (the live chat is however only available Monday to Friday from 4AM to 8PM EST). A community forum serves as a platform to exchange ideas and share experiences.

Zenfolio has a generall blog but also provides at least a dozen niche photography user guides including portrait photography, wedding photography, wildlife photography, food photography and real estate photography. There’s a separate help section dedicated to tips on creating video content.

Prospective customers can book a 15-minute call to learn more about Zenfolio. Customers have access to support through email, calling a toll-free number or live chat (6AM to 5PM PST). A status page shows whether or not any of Zenfolio’s suite of services is up or not.

Review Ratings

The two platforms ratings on select review platforms are as follows. Squarespace scores better than Zenfolio (often by a wide margin) on all but one platform. Further, Squarespace has a much greater number of reviews, indicative of its far larger user base.

Best For (Typical Customer/User)

Squarespace has a much greater number and diversity of users. That alone is proof of its broader array of features that would apply to businesses outside the photography space.

It also has a more sophisticated set of ecommerce options. That would make it ideal for photographers whose primary goal of a website is to sell their product and service.

Zenfolio is focused on serving photographers and videographers almost exclusively. Its ecommerce capabilities are however not as expansive. So it would be the right option for photographers looking to create a display only website or one where an online store is not its main function.

Conclusion

In summary, Zenfolio’s focus on the photography industry would mean it has considerably greater expertise in understanding and accommodating the needs of photographers and videographers.

On the other hand, Squarespace’s much broader spectrum of products, features and services provides an important edge especially for photographers that consider ecommerce capabilities a central part of their strategy.

Also, Squarespace does score decisively higher on user ratings, perhaps a statement that the company may be more in tune to the needs of its clients.